NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Jan. 20) - Police used a stun gun on former heavyweight champion Oliver McCall after he tried running away from officers trying to arrest him for trespassing in a public housing development, authorities said.

McCall, who knocked out Lennox Lewis for the WBC heavyweight title in 1994, was arrested late Thursday.

Officers asked him if he lived in the area, which was posted with "No Trespassing" signs. McCall said he didn't and told them he was "Oliver McCall, ex-heavyweight champion of the world."

When police told him he was under arrest, "McCall replied 'no' and took off running," a police statement said.

Officers used a Taser to restrain the 6-foot-2, 250-pound McCall. They also recovered a glass pipe and a $5 bill containing a small amount of cocaine. McCall, 40, who lives in Collinsville, Va., later spit at an officer and threatened to kill him, authorities said.

He was being held Friday on $299,000 bond and charged with criminal trespassing, resisting arrest, assaulting police officers, threatening to kill an officer and being a fugitive from justice on charges in Virginia.

McCall had previously been arrested in Nashville in December 1996 after throwing a Christmas tree in a hotel lobby.

McCall defended his title successfully against Larry Holmes in 1995, but lost it to Frank Bruno later that year.

He tried to win the vacant title back in 1997 against Lewis but broke into tears and stopped throwing punches in the fourth round. The fight was stopped in the fifth.

01/20/06 14:08 EST

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